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If you watched "Little House on the Prairie," chances are you remember the story of Mary Ingalls.

The television show and popular book series drew on the real-life
experiences of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Mary, Laura's sister, went blind as
a teenager after contracting scarlet fever, according to the story. Now
a team of medical researchers are raising questions about whether
that's true.

Dr. Beth Tarini, one of the co-authors of the paper, became intrigued by the question as a medical student.

"I was in my pediatrics rotation. We were talking about scarlet
fever, and I said, 'Oh, scarlet fever makes you go blind. Mary Ingalls
went blind from it,'" recalls Tarini, who is now an assistant professor
of pediatrics at the University of Michigan. My supervisor said, "I
don't think so."

Tarini started doing research. Over the course of 10 years, she and
her team of researchers, pored over old papers and letters written by
Laura Ingalls Wilder, local newspaper accounts of Mary's illness and
epidemiological data on blindness and infectious disease in the late
19th century. What they found was intriguing.

In Wilder's unpublished memoir, "Pioneer Girl," there is no reference to
Mary having scarlet fever the year she went blind. (She did have
scarlet fever when she was much younger.) "She never says scarlet fever.
She never says rash," Tarini says, pointing out the rash is a telltale
sign of scarlet fever.

Digging deeper, when researchers looked at epidemiological data from
the time, they saw that most cases of blindness attributed to scarlet
fever were temporary. In addition, newspaper accounts of Mary's illness
report "severe headaches" and one side of her face being partially
paralyzed.

Finally, and perhaps the most important piece of evidence, in a
letter Wilder wrote to her daughter, Rose, right before her book "By the
Shores of Silver Lake" was published, she makes reference "some sort of
spinal sickness". The letter also mentions that Mary saw a specialist
in Chicago who said "the nerves of her eyes were paralyzed and there was
no hope."

Diagnosis by these disease detectives: viral meningoencephalitis,
which causes inflammation of the brain and the meninges, the membrane
that covers the brain. In severe cases, it can cause inflammation of the
optic nerve that can result in a slow and progressive loss of sight.

It may not be the biggest bombshell to hit the medical world, but to
"Little House" fans, the question remains: why did Wilder change her
sister's illness to scarlet fever? The study authors believe it could be
because Wilder and her editors thought scarlet fever would be more
relatable to her readers. Scarlet fever is mentioned in other books from
the period, including "Little Women" and "Frankenstein."

But there is also an important wider medical lesson we can learn from
this research. Today, about 10% of people infected with strep get
scarlet fever, says Tarini. It is easily treatable. But because the
cultural reference to scarlet fever is so ingrained in our culture,
people assume it is very dangerous. "People read as children that
scarlet fever makes you go blind," says Tarini. "Parents look concerned
... so I have to debunk it in the office."

The study was published Monday in this week's edition of the journal Pediatrics.

My oldest had scarlet fever when she was 2. She ran such a high fever it scared the living day lights out if me. I took her straight to the er where they gave her a shot of antibiotics. She wasn't old enough to tell me her throat hurt. And she didn't run any fever until that day. Or have any signs of strep that I could see. The dr now says that she runs a greater chance at getting strep because she had scarlet fever. And you better believe if either one of my kids complain of a sore throat, I am watching it like a hawk. And 9 times out of 10 I take them to the dr to make sure.

My oldest son had a high fever and got a rash. Got him to the doctor and that's what he had. He was young like about two. When the doctor said Scarlet Fever I about fainted. He said no, it's OK. Antibiotics will take care of this. It is strep with a rash. This kid got lots of ear infections. Thankfully he never got strep again. My pedi led the charge with NO antibiotics for children unless absolutely necessary. This was 28 years ago when kids came in with a cold and you got a BIG bottle of amoxicillian. That was standard. My son is 30 and has a pretty good immune system today.

Quoting Whaaaaaa....O.o:

My oldest had scarlet fever when she was 2. She ran such a high fever it scared the living day lights out if me. I took her straight to the er where they gave her a shot of antibiotics. She wasn't old enough to tell me her throat hurt. And she didn't run any fever until that day. Or have any signs of strep that I could see. The dr now says that she runs a greater chance at getting strep because she had scarlet fever. And you better believe if either one of my kids complain of a sore throat, I am watching it like a hawk. And 9 times out of 10 I take them to the dr to make sure.

That's interesting! Maybe they just weren't exactly sure what caused her blindness so it was easier to attribute it to the scarlet fever she had when she was younger. Maybe it's not that Laura made it up but it's what she had always been told growing up. Ma and Pa could have made it up or the doctor could have given the wrong diagnosis. Of course it is possible Laura just put that in there to make it more relatable to the readers then viral meningoencephalitis. I love stuff like this.

Those books and Heidi were my favorite books as a child. Little House in the Big Woods and the book about her husbands childhood were the two best. I read those over and over again. I know that time period was not the greatest for many people, but I longed for that kind of freedom. The prairie. It was back breaking work but those people didn't seem unhappy.

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